Apples..harvest…

 Apples…harvest…

The encyclopedia says there are over 7,500 varieties of apples…

“Types of Apples. There are over 7,500 varieties of apples worldwide. The United States grows 2,500 apple varieties, but just 100 of them are grown commercially.”

Fun facts….

Apple Facts - Apples and More - University of Illinois Extension

web.extension.illinois.edu › apples › facts

• The crabapple is the only apple native to North America.

• Apples come in all shades of reds, greens, and yellows.

• Two pounds of apples make one 9-inch pie.

• Apple blossom is the state flower of Michigan.”

•           And many more….

When  I built my present home, I planted 4 types…and I picked the last ones yesterday after several days of frosty mornings…they were ripe…

At literally every home we have lived in, we planted fruit trees of some kind…some made it, most didn’t…High desert Nevada is brutal on fruit trees…plus, if the trees make it, you average a crop every 7 years, because of the cold springs….here in Idaho, I have had a crop 3 of 4 years…what a treat!…

Several years ago, I got to go to the Apple festival in Hood River, Oregon…such fun…so many kinds of apple to taste and choose from…many for local use and not sent to the regular supermarkets…

Both my husband and I were brought up with various fruits and orchards…me , in central and Northern California…he, in the Willamette valley of Oregon…we valued fresh fruit for our family as they grew…and would visit relatives gathering fruit along the way, wherever we happened to be…he even found abandoned orchards in the back country of Nevada which we would visit and harvest or elderberries,  chokecherries or service berries which grew in abundance in canyons near where we lived.

The first mention of fruit is in the first book of Genesis…

And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 

And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. 

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. 

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” 

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 1:11-13,29,2:9,15-17,3:1-6,12-13 

I have always seen pictures of the serpent handing  over a huge juicy apple to Eve…but it really doesn’t say apple, it could have been  another fruit equally as lush…my mind’s eye really congers up  Snow White with the witchy looking woman enticing her with a beautiful polished red apple…saying “Come, my dear…”…. As she finally succumbs to the temptation as Eve does with Adam…thus  the Fall….a consequence we still reap…

But, God, in His infinite love, prepared, planned a solution to that Fall, Jesus…the redeemer for the world through His life, death and resurrection…if only we accept that gift of salvation… we can be numbered in that harvest as well…not in the thousands as the types apples, but in the multitudes…people from every nation and tribe…around the world…across the ages of time…what a Harvest…gathering…

Thank YOU….

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16-17